“He has never maintained an office in Connecticut and is not employed by any law firm in Connecticut,” Manafort’s lawyers Frederic Ury and Anthony LaBella wrote in court filing. “Mr. Manafort has no clients in the state of Connecticut and he has no appearances of record before any state or federal court in this jurisdiction.”

The name of the law firm representing Manafort, whose contacts with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign have made him a central figure in the investigation of special counsel Robert Mueller, is ironically Ury & Moskow.

Manafort was not expected to appear at the hearing, which would have been conducted by a sub-panel of the Statewide Grievance Committee, the clearinghouse for ethics complaints involving the 35,000 lawyers admitted to practice in Connecticut.

“It would be a sensational surprise if he showed up, testified and was cross examined,” Larrabbee said.

A federal jury convicted Manafort of eight counts of tax and bank fraud last August, a stunning downfall for the take-no-prisoners political tactician, who Donald Trump enlisted in the spring of 2016 to help sew up the Republican presidential nomination.